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Day 1

Understand their story

 Understand Their Story

Read John 9:1-12.

After his conversation that left many of the Jewish people angry with him, Jesus leaves the Temple and begins the story we will be studying this week.

  • Summarize the events of the passage.
    • What question sets these events in motion?
  • Whose work does Jesus say he is doing in this passage?
  • How does he do this work?
  • How do the man’s neighbours respond to the man once he has been healed?
    • Why might it have been hard for them to believe that this was the same man who used to beg (read v. 32)?

Pray today in reflection and adoration.  Look at your life, and reflect on the places where Jesus brought about solutions that seemed unlikely at the time. Praise Jesus, who is able to do far more than all we ask or imagine, even in circumstances that seem impossible to us.

 

Day 2

Understand their story

Understand Their Story

Read John 9:13-41.  

 

Jesus’ healing of the blind man leads to a number of investigating conversations by the Pharisees.

  • Summarize the way that the Pharisees engage in each interaction.
    • What question(s) do they ask each person?
    • Are they initially all in agreement about who Jesus is?

The Pharisees speak with the man himself twice, and his parents once.

  • What response(s) do they receive from the man who was healed when they first speak with him?
    • Does he say anything different in the second interaction?
    • What does his tone in the second conversation reveal about the state of the Pharisees?
  • What do the man’s parents say when they are approached by the Pharisees?
    • What does that show about the attitudes of the Pharisees towards those who see Jesus in a positive light?
  • How does the healed man ultimately respond to Jesus’ miracle in vv. 35-38?

Pray today in reflection and supplication.  Who do you know who continues to reject Jesus despite the evidence put before them?  Pray that they come to see that Jesus is the light of the world, who can restore their sight.

Day 3

Connect to His story

      • Connect to His StoryThrough this sign, John intends to show the ways that the Pharisees did not understand the ways in which God works, nor could they accurately apply the Bible to Jesus’ works. 
        • Read Ezekiel 18:1-20
          • What is this passage concerned with?
          • What determines whether someone is guilty of sin or not?
          • How does a passage like this challenge both the disciples’ initial question, and the Pharisees’ assessment of the healed man’s original condition?
        • Read Psalm 34:11-22
          • What are the people of Israel commanded to do in vv. 11-14?
          • What are all of the ways in which God is said to be attentive to his people?
          • What is the hope that this passage speaks to?
          • How does this passage conflict with the Pharisees’ view of Jesus? Read John 9:31-33 to see how the healed man explains this to the Pharisees.

        Pray today in confession and supplication. How have you misunderstood the ways in which God works in the present? Are there ways in which you’ve assumed that the bad things that people—or you yourself—have experienced must have happened because God was mad? Ask that God would help you to see him rightly.

Day 4

Connect to His story

 Connect to His Story

John also intends to show that Jesus is the long awaited one, who brings both restoration and judgment.

  • Read Isaiah 35:1-10
    • What event does this passage predict? (see v. 10)
    • What are some of the images used to describe this coming restoration?
    • Who does v. 4 say will bring about this restoration?
  • Read Daniel 7:13-14
    • What does this “son of man” receive?
    • Who does he receive it from?
    • What does Jesus’ use of this title in John 9:35 reveal about the kind of authority he has? What does this kind of authority mean for those who do not believe in him?

Pray today in adoration and thanksgiving. How can you praise Jesus in light of these roles he fulfills? How can you praise him for bringing both restoration and his good reign over all things?

Day 5

Apply to our story

Apply to your Story

John 9:1-41 tells us of the incredible news that Jesus is the light of the world, and the two responses that people can have to this pronouncement.

 

  • Reflect on Jesus’ final statement in this passage regarding the purpose of his mission in John 9:39-41.
    • How does this statement tell us that anyone came to see Jesus as he truly is?
    • What is the warning to those who think they see clearly without Jesus?
      • How does Jesus’ assessment of the Pharisees warn you today about assuming you see things rightly without the light Jesus brings?

 

Pray today in confession and supplication. Confess the ways in which, like the Pharisees, you trusted your own sight. Ask that God would grant you a right vision of your own salvation, and that he would give light to those in your life who can’t yet see him.